Sure the Gardai are as corrupt and bent as the best of them. After the Kerry babies fiasco youād think theyād take that one on the chin. Not that thereās anything offensive about it.
Nothing to do with Britain and everything to do with the ruling class. The gardai are state actorsā¦ Thereās nothing in the slightest that links that to Britain but everything that suggests misgovernment. I think itās s fair comparisonā¦ It was within most of our own great grandparents time that mass evictions took placeā¦ The tweet is merely alluding to history repeating itself. Harris cowardly drawing the gardai as the objects of criticism when itās clear that the ire is aimed at the state.
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I was thinking the same.
Seems Fine Gael have misjudged this one and thereās a backlash against the backlash.
I donāt think it was an anti Guard post at all? Just anti government
Just to clarify - is this lad the āclever oneā
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Are lads implying that weāve had an eviction ban in since we took back the state from the British?
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I genuinely donāt see what the problem with the tweet is.
The word āevictionā carries immense historical weight in this country.
There have been absolute piss takers who have abused that historical weight in order to demonstrate on behalf of other absolute piss takers, ie. the likes of Ben Gilroy calling himself the āNew Land Leagueā and demonstrating on behalf of the OāDonnells of Vico Road and that shower of gobshites in Roscommon, but use of that sort imagery is legitimate in this case I think.
The case against the eviction ban is a legitimate one whether you agree with it or not and of course part of that campaign is emotive imagery to demonstrate that people will be evicted by a government/state/heavy mob nexus. The case against the eviction ban mainly is an emotive one by nature. It is to appeal to peopleās natural sense of justice. Using the imagery that was used does that effectively.
If it had been a non-Sinn Fein person who put out the tweet would there have been any furore at all?
Or is it that Sinn Fein canāt even mildly criticise the use of Gardai to enforce evictions, or canāt even mildly criticise Garda behaviour in future, because they originate in the PIRA? By the way I also think itās perfectly legitimate for others to point out that Sinn Fein originate with the PIRA, and indeed use emotive imagery or stories to emphasise this.
All utterly irrelevant (although fair play for spending 10 mins typing it out)
That tweet had very little upside and lots of downside.
It wasnāt a tweet of a smart lad. It was the kind of post some lad on here would post having arrived in from the pub and looking to get a couple of bites.
SF have a substantial lead in the polls. Achieving power is surely the sole goal. A tweet like that doesnāt help achieve that and might be counter-productive to that goal.
As I said - is he meant to be the āsmartā one? Itās a low enough bar if the answer is yes
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At a time when itās never been more difficult to be a Garda in Ireland, thatās particularly disgusting.
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Your response is irrelevant because it frames politics purely as a cynical game of vote winning. Iām not really interested in any implications for opinion polls out of this, and any anyway politics is supposed to be about more than than that, itās supposed to be about what you actually believe in and think is right.
The furore over the tweet is apparently because itās offensive, at least thatās what Fine Gael are claiming. I think Fine Gaelās anger is not because itās supposedly offensive at all but because it brings home an uncomfortable truth about what eviction is.
I think the way you tried to frame the issue as one of how it will affect the polls shows you know this too.
And I think you know that Fine Gaelās āoutrageā over this is entirely cynical and manufactured and entirely poll-driven. Otherwise you would have addressed the actual issue, which is the content of the tweet and why exactly itās apparently being considered āoffensiveā by Fine Gael (and indeed others).
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Thereās a touch of the Banksy off the tweet which prob lends itself to its effectiveness.
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because it brings home an uncomfortable truth about what eviction is.
Iād have no problem with Gardai clubbing those anti-refugee scumbags around the streets, none at all, Iād be there applauding them if they did it (they havenāt, unfortunately).
The image to me seems completely legitimate. Thatās what the case against the eviction ban mainly is, emotion and a pointing to history. That the government will use the Gardai to evict people and put them out on the streets.
Also itās not like the Gardai donāt have form for using balaclavas in kicking people of places.
He has allowed FG and others to portray him as hard-left/anti-guard and thus cede the centre which SF need to woo if they are to achieve their goal of power.
He has hindered the strategic goal of his political party and therefore his own political goals.
It was an emotional and ill-considered tweet in that context. And it definitely wasnāt clever.
Heād be well advised to study how Blair et al won their first election
But I donāt care how FG are āportrayingā him because I donāt support either FG or SF. I did vote for OāBroin in 2011 and 2016 (heās in my constituency) but have since gravitated well away from Sinn Fein and wonāt be voting for him or his party again, Iāll vote Green again next time as I did in 2020, and probably Labour number 2.
Iām interested in why exactly thereās such āoutrageā over this tweet, mainly from FG, and what exactly that outrage is over.
Itās a very legit piece of satireā¦ Leave party allegiance aside, it works.
Whatās wrong with the tweet? Forget SFā¦ It works.
Lookit. I get it. You want to portray yourself as smart by being wordy etc etc. While completely missing the key point.
Kinda like Eoin !
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